After completing a postgraduate degree, one of the options is to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) program. These Ph.D programs cost money and time. To help a scholar there are many Research Fellowship Schemes in India funded by either a government agency or a private one. Such a scholar pursuing a Ph.D receives a monthly stipend and in some cases an annual contingency grant for 2 to 5 years.
The most relevant of these are:
Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Scholarship Physical Research Laboratory Junior Research Fellowship Google PhD Fellowship India Program ICHR Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) ICSSR Doctoral Research Fellowship Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) (discontinued from fiscal year 2023) NCERT Doctoral Fellowship for PhD Junior Research Fellowship CSIR-UGC JRF NET Fellowship AICTE Doctoral fellowship (ADF) DBT-JRF Fellowship FITM – AYUSH Research Fellowship Scheme SAARC Agricultural PhD Scholarship Swami Vivekananda Single Child Scholarship for Research in Social Science ESSO-NCESS Junior Research Fellowship
Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF)
This fellowship was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the supervision of the Central Government of India in the budget 2018-2019. This scholarship scheme provide financial support to the meritorious students of IISc and IIT going for a PhD. Under this scheme, the scholar gets a monthly stipend of ₹70,000 for first-year which is increased to ₹80,000 per month during 4th and 5th year of the program. During the course of the fellowship, researchers are also eligible to a research contingency grant of ₹2 lakh per annum.
Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Scholarship
Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Scholarships is another Ph.D scholarship available to Indian and students of Asian countries. The selected candidates are paid ₹18,000 every month to support their tuition fees. Contingency grand of ₹15,000 is also paid to these researchers annually.
Physical Research Laboratory Junior Research Fellowship
It is one of the top PhD scholarships in India for postgraduates in the field of physics and astronomy. It is exclusively for PhD research at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) and provides monthly awards up to ₹35,000 per month.
Google PhD Fellowship India Program
This fellowship program is offered by Google for Ph.D scholars in computer science. The Google Ph.D Fellowship India Program also provides a monthly fellowship amount and a contingency expenses. Moreover the scholars are also provided an internship offer at Google.
ICHR Junior Research Fellowship
ICHR Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) are for PhD aspirants of historical studies and are offered by the Indian Council of Historical Research. It offers monthly stipend of ₹17,600 and contingency expenses of ₹16,500 for 2 years.
ICSSR Doctoral Research Fellowship
It is a doctoral fellowship given by Indian Council of Social Science Research of Government of India pursuing Ph.D in social sciences and is registered in a UGC recognized Indian university. The fellowship is ₹20,000 per month for only two years.
Maulana Azad National Fellowship
This fellowship was provided by the Ministry of Minority Affairs of the Government of India. The fellowship was provided to students from minority communities whose family income is not more than 6 Lakh. Financial assistance of ₹28,000 per month for 5 years was given to pursue higher education such as MPhil and PhD. However, this scheme has been discontinued as, according to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, it overlaps with other fellowships schemes offered by Govt. of India such as JRF and CSIR fellowship.
NCERT Doctoral Fellowship for Ph.D
This fellowship is given by NCERT to young scholars in any recognized university in India. The NET qualified NCERT doctoral fellows receives ₹25,000 per month for a maximum period of three years. For the candidates who have not qualified for the NET exam, the amount is only ₹23,000 per month.
Junior Research Fellowship
The JRF or Junior Research Fellow is a letter awarded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to the candidates who qualify in the National Eligibility Test. JRF letter is a bearer document that signifies you can avail of the scholarship while pursuing M.Phil./Ph.D
Who gets JRF certification? If a candidate takes the UGC NET JRF Exam in a particular subject, then there are 2 cut-offs declared by UGC. One of them is for clearing NET and the other one which is a bit higher than NET is for JRF. The score of JRF is valid only for 3 years whereas the score of NET is valid for the lifetime.